SeedQuest Forum

Prof. Dr. Norbert Leist - International Seed Testing Association

October 2002

What have been the key milestones in the work of ISTA since its founding in 1924?

The history of ISTA is inextricably linked with the history of seed testing itself and it would be inappropriate to consider events since 1924 without putting them into the context of the earlier history. Seed testing and ISTA had their beginnings in the late 19^th and early 20^th Centuries and key milestones are:

1869	First Seed Testing Station established in Tharandt, Saxony by Professor Friedrich Nobbe
1875	Professor Nobbe presides over the "First assembly of Directors of Seed Testing Stations and of other Persons Interested in this Matter" in Graz, Austria. This was attended by 31 participants from middle-European countries. Annual meetings were agreed and first set of seed testing rules drafted and approved.
1876	Nobbe’s "Handbook of Seed Science" published and meeting of Directors of Seed Testing Stations in Hamburg adopts the motto "Uniformity in Seed Testing" – later becoming part of the logo of ISTA.
1896	More than 100 seed testing stations in 19 countries: Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Java, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States of America.
1906	Meetings of Directors of Seed Testing Stations and of other Persons Interested in this Matter develop into International Seed Testing Congresses the first of which was held in Hamburg
1921	The European Seed Testing Association was founded at the third Congress in Copenhagen.
1924	The European Seed Testing Association changed its name to the International Seed Testing Association at the forth Congress in Cambridge. The International Seed Trade Federation (FIS) founded in London and the seeds of a fruitful relationship between the two organisations was sown.
1931	On request of FIS the ISTA International Seed Lot Certificate was installed.
1950	The Washington DC Congress was the first held outside Europe and the first after World War II. It demonstrated that even after 13 years interruption by the war ISTA was indispensable for international seed business.
1995	The Copenhagen Congress adopted a Quality Assurance Programme including Accreditation Standard, Referee Test Programme* and Audit Programme guaranteeing worldwide harmonised and uniform seed testing. ISTA Membership extended to private persons and private laboratories that were independent of any seed company. *Note: The ISTA Referee Testing Programme has been in place since the beginning of ISTA in one form or another. The structure and the design of the programme was changed in 1995. The decision to change the design and delivery system for the programme was made at the 1995 Congress in Copenhagen.
2001	At the Angers Congress membership of ISTA extended to seed company personnel and laboratories on an experimental basis. A decision was also taken to hold membership meetings of ISTA every year in order to speed up the business of the Association to enable ISTA to respond to the rapidly changing needs of its customers. The reaccredidation of all ISTA laboratories has been finalised.
2002	The first annual meeting of the ISTA membership held in Santa Cruz (Bolivia). Delegates voted on amendments to ISTA Rules, which will come into effect on 1 January 2003.